Education
The Voices Of Civil Rights Bus Tour Named Best Event Web Site In The Ninth Annual Webby Awards
AARP Receives Top International Honor for Web Sites / News Release
May 18, 2005
The Webby Awards, the leading international honor for web sites, has named AARP's Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour (www.voicesofcivilrights.org/bustour) as the Best Event web site of 2005.
"This web site brought the Voices of Civil Rights project to the world," said Rick Bowers, Director of Creative Initiatives for AARP. "It captured the sights and sounds of our historic bus tour for online participants around the globe."
The Webby Awards, hailed as the "online Oscars" by Time Magazine, recognize the best sites on the Internet. This year's winners were chosen from over 4,300 sites from all 50 states and over 40 countries. Other nominees in the Events category included Evite, the free social planning site; the Coca-Cola Olympic Torch Relay site; Turner Classic Movies - 31 Days of Oscar 2004; and BBC, WW2 People's War.
Winners will be honored at The 9th Annual Webby Awards, which will be held for the first time in New York City on June 6th at Gotham Hall. The Webby Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to former Vice President Al Gore, in recognition of the role he has played in the development of the Internet over the past three decades. The ceremony will be hosted by comedian Rob Corrdry of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The bus tour web site was part of the multi-faceted Voices of Civil Rights project, a joint initiative by AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Library of Congress to preserve firsthand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement. Earlier this year more than 4,000 stories of courage and sacrifice, hope and redemption were donated to the Library of Congress, where they will be archived for future generations.
On August 3, 2004, the Voices of Civil Rights bus embarked on a 70-day, coast-to-coast journey to collect personal stories about the quest for freedom and justice. The bus, staffed with award-winning journalists, photographers, and videographers, traveled some 12,000 miles, visiting historic sites from Virginia to as far west as California.
The web site documented the entire journey. After each stop, a journalist wrote a journal entry describing the day's event with links to photos and video of the day's activities and participants. The web site also included a full itinerary of the tour and an online form for entering personal stories into the archives.
Nearly 200,000 people attended Voices of Civil Rights events in their communities and thousands shared their personal stories. Thousands more participated by logging onto the site.
"We wanted to make the bus tour as real as possible for online visitors," added Beth Rhodes, the Voices of Civil Rights project manager. "It provided access to virtually real-time updates from each city through photos, video, and journal entries and allowed participants to submit their own stories."
For more information on The Webby Awards, please visit: www.webbyawards.com
About the Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour
The Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour web site followed a 70-day, coast-to-coast journey across 22 states and more than 35 cities to collect firsthand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement. The tour included stops along the route of the 1961 Freedom Rides, as well as commemorative events throughout the country. The Voices of Civil Rights Bus Tour was part of Voices of Civil Rights, a joint project of AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Library of Congress to build the world's largest archive of civil rights stories from ordinary people. The collection will be permanently housed at the Library of Congress.
About The Webby Awards:
Called the "Oscars of the Internet" by the New York Times, the Webby is the leading international award honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality. Established in 1996, the 9th Annual Webby Awards received over 4,000 entries from all 50 states and over 40 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: The Creative Group; Adweek Magazines; Fortune and FSB; Ektron; 2Advanced Studios; The Online Publishing Association; MX Interactive; IDG; PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Rackspace Managed Hosting. For more information, visit www.webbyawards.com.
About the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS):
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences is dedicated to the creative, technical, and professional progress of the Internet and interactive media. The Academy is an intellectually diverse organization that includes over 500 members consisting of leading experts in a diverse range of fields, such as musician David Bowie, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, business guru and author Tom Peters, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, fashion designer Max Azria, "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and Real Networks CEO Rob Glaser. For more information, visit www.iadas.net.
The Webby Awards and The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences are registered trademarks of International Data Group.
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. We produce AARP The Magazine, published bimonthly; AARP Bulletin, our monthly newspaper; AARP Segunda Juventud, our bimonthly magazine in Spanish and English; NRTA Live & Learn, our quarterly newsletter for 50+ educators; and our website, www.aarp.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.